As working and living conditions continued to deteriorate, discontent of the miners increased.

In the first months of the occupation, there were sporadic but repeated strikes and work stoppages, leading to a significant decline in yields.

In response, the Germans increased the length of the working day by half an hour from 1 January 1941, with no increase in wages. The decision enraged the miners, and communists and underground union activists took the opportunity to agitate amongst the workers - unions had been banned by the Vichy government.

The next day, the miners began a series of go-slows, carrying out work stoppages half an hour at the beginning or end of service.

Beginning at Pit 7 Escarpelle, near Douai, the movement spread to all the pits in Aniche and Escarpelle over the next two weeks.

Despite injunctions and measures taken by the French and German authorities, the movement continued until the arrest of nearly two hundred miners. Faced with a renewed strike in Escarpelle in March, the Germans sent in troops to occupy the pits.

Faced with this dire situation, the occupation authorities began to ramp up the repression.

The first arrests were made on 28 May from lists provided by the mining companies from reports made by engineers and mine guards.

However this was insufficient to halt the spread of the strike, so army reinforcements were brought in.

On June 3, General Niehoff ordered the putting up posters containing two notices: the first requiring miners to return to work, the second announcing the sentencing of eleven strikers to five years of forced labour and two women and two to three years of hard labour.

Still, the strike continued, so German troops occupied the pits. Public places, cafes and cinemas were all closed and gatherings of people banned. Payment of wages was suspended and ration cards were no longer distributed. Arrests multiplied.

Men and women were taken to the prisons of Loos, Bethune, Douai and Arras. The Kleber barracks in Lille and Valenciennes Vincent barracks were transformed into internment camps.

The toll was heavy: hundreds of people were arrested. 270 minus were deported in July in Germany; 130 died. Others were shot later in the year. Many of those who avoid arrest chose to go underground.
Michel Brulé (pictured), for example, was a miner at pit 7 Dourges, where he played a key role in initiating the strike, and he also committed numerous acts of sabotage. He was arrested and shot April 14, 1942 in Marquette-Lez-Lille.

The wave of terror and hunger took its toll on the miners, and they were forced to return to work on 10 June, having cost the German war machine 500,000 tonnes of coal in lost production.

However the authorities were forced to grant concessions: German authorities introduced a special service to bring additional food and workloads to the miners, and the Vichy government granted a general increase in wages on 17 June.

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